The End of a Rivalry?

Barring any future realignment, Harvard and Providence will never again meet as conference foes. It was announced in October that the ECAC Division I women's ice hockey league would be splitting into two separate leagues.

One league mirrors the men's ECAC, consisting of Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, St. Lawrence, Princeton, Yale, Cornell and newcomers Colgate and Vermont. The other league will be composed of Northeastern, New Hampshire, Providence, Niagara, Maine, Boston College and new members UConn and Quinnipiac. The two leagues have yet to be officially named.

Deraney would love to keep Harvard on his schedule, even though his team will now be playing its conference opponents three times per season.

"I think it's a great rivalry, and I hope it continues with the separation of the leagues next year," Deraney said. "I hope that Katey [Stone] wants to continue the rivalry because it's one of the best in college hockey."

Harvard went 0-1-1 against Providence last season, as the Friars were the only ECAC team, other than Dartmouth, that the Crimson failed to defeat. Harvard was 3-0 against the Friars this season.

According to Shewchuk, many of Harvard's players would prefer not to play Providence--a team whose physical style of play has been a source of frustration.

"I think any one of us on our team would rather play against a team with a lot of good skills rather than a lot of big goons," Shewchuk said. "It's a very good program, though, and I think if they relied a little bit more on their skills and a little less on their toughness, I think they'd go a little bit farther even."